By The newspaper
23 Jul 2024, 01:23 AM EDT
A 12-year-old girl was dragged down a staircase and raped on the roof of her public housing building (NYCHA) in East Harlem, Manhattan.
New York police are looking for two young men, who appear to be teenagers, on suspicion of having abused the girl around 6:30 p.m. Sunday at a building in Jefferson Houses near East 112th St. and First Ave.
The teenagers apparently took the girl up a flight of stairs to the roof of the building and raped her there. The victim did not know her attackers, who fled on foot after committing the crime, he said. Daily News.
The girl lives in the building where she was attacked. “We don’t know those boys … We don’t know anything,” said a male relative of the victim. The pre-teen victim was taken to an area hospital after the attack and is recovering, according to her family.
No arrests have been made. Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) and for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). They can also be reached at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or by texting 274637 (CRIMES) followed by TIP577. All communications are strictly confidential.
The attack came as police are grappling with a 10% increase in reported rapes this year. As of Sunday evening, July 14, the NYPD was investigating 880 rapes and sexual assaults, 84 more than the 796 reported at this time last year. And the number could be higher, as police say the majority of rapes remain unreported.
The number of sexual assaults committed by strangers has also increased, as has domestic rape. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said his team will address the increase head-on and has added more detectives to the NYPD’s Special Victims Squad.
Last week, a 53-year-old woman was brutally beaten and raped inside a building, apparently by a young Latino man. Another of the most high-profile recent cases occurred last month when a 13-year-old girl was abused while playing soccer with a 13-year-old boy in Kissena Park in Queens. A 25-year-old Hispanic man was arrested and beaten by the community, and later confessed to the crime.
In mid-May, a 15-year-old bravely fought to avoid being raped by a man who approached her while she was walking through a park in the Bronx (NYC). The same thing happened to a 21-year-old woman who was tanning in Manhattan’s famous Central Park.
I looked for help
- Call 911, 988 or (800)-942-6906.
- Text “WELL” to 65173.
- Check information at https://nycwell.cityofnewyork.us/es/ and www.988lineadevida.org